This invention relates to signal pickup cartridges and more particularly to a cartridge which is bifurcated to facilitate assembly.
Certain pickup cartridges, for example, those used in Capacitance Electronic Disc players, include an enclosure into which is assembled to a pickup arm delicately suspended therein. Typically the pickup arm will have a tiny pickup stylus secured to one end which engages the disc record to recover recorded signal. A leaf spring deformed in an arc is connected between the cartridge enclosure and the stylus to provide electrical contact between the stylus and pickup circuitry and to provide a desired amount of pressure between the stylus and the disc, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,124 entitled "Video Disc Playback System and Pickup Cartridge Therefor". Nominally the constitutent parts of the enclosure and pickup assembly are small and/or delicate and difficult to handle with respect to the assembly process. It is particularly difficult to align and secure the leaf spring to the stylus/stylus arm within the relatively small enclosure when it is bowed in a compressive arc. The present invention facilitates assembly of the leaf spring by bifurcating the cartridge so that the leaf spring can be assembled to the stylus/stylus arm and the cartridge before being arced or bowed and effectively enlarges the cartridge enclosure to expedite assembly.